Trackline
One template for everyone or one per client?
The decision that determines whether in a year you have three templates or forty.
At first you build one template. Then a client asks for something different and it gets duplicated "just for them". A year later there are forty near-identical templates, nobody knows which to use, and changing one thing means editing forty.
The rule that prevents proliferation
Important
**Duplicate a template only when the steps change, not when what is requested within a step changes.** If the process is the same and only the document list varies, you do not need two templates.
When another really is needed
| Situation | New template? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The phase order is different | Yes | It is another process, however similar |
| There is an approval step the other lacks | Yes | Who takes part changes |
| Two extra documents are requested | No | Same sequence, different content |
| It is for another country with different names | It depends | If only the wording changes, no |
How to tell there are too many
Watch out
The fourth is the easiest to fix and the least examined: a template unused for six months should be retired or marked. Leaving it guarantees someone uses it by mistake exactly when it matters.
The clean-up, once it has happened
- 1
List them by actual use
How many files were launched with each in the last year.
- 2
Group those sharing a sequence
Usually three or four families emerge, not forty unique cases.
- 3
Keep one per family
With the variation inside, not as a separate template.
- 4
And retire what is unused, without deleting files
Files launched with it still exist; what is retired is the template.
Worth knowing
Having AI draft a process helps you start, but it does not replace this decision: it can generate forty correct templates as fast as three, and writing them was never the problem.
›What if a client demands their own circuit?
Then it genuinely is another process: who takes part and in what order changes.
›Can I change a template with files in progress?
Yes, and those already launched carry on with the version they started with.
›How many is reasonable?
Fewer than you have, almost always. One per process family.
A real case
The situation
A company has accumulated thirty-one supplier onboarding templates.
What you do
- Groups them by sequence and finds three families
- Keeps three templates with the variation inside
What you get
A regulatory change is applied by editing three templates instead of thirty-one.
The situation
A template is created per client and there are already twenty.
What you do
- Unifies into one and marks the specifics as optional
What you get
Improvements reach everyone at once.
The situation
One client demands a document no other asks for.
What you do
- Creates a variant for that case alone
What you get
The exception does not contaminate the general template.
The situation
Nobody knows which template fits a new client.
What you do
- Names templates by case type
What you get
The choice is obvious.
The situation
An improvement reaches three templates and not the others.
What you do
- Reduces the number of templates before improving
What you get
Maintenance stops multiplying.
The situation
A copy is made for a one-line change.
What you do
- Uses an optional field instead of a copy
What you get
The template list does not grow with every nuance.
This article answers
- how many process templates do i need
- a different template per client
- maintaining many templates
- simplifying the processes we have